Exciting Class At The Yeshiva

I read the Sunday School lesson and realized it had the potential to be interesting.
Last Sunday was such a snooze, I had to use all my willpower to stay awake and not fall out of my chair. We are studying in Colossians which is my second favorite epistle, my first being Hebrews. I'm not a big fan of Saint Paul, but when I do meet him I'll at least be able to say "I read all your books."

I'm just auditing this class since I'm not a church member. I wouldn't join any church that would have someone like me for a member. What I'm trying to say is since I'm not Southern Baptist I strive not to be outspoken in class. The incendiary text was from Colossians Chapter 2:

⁶ Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. ¹⁷ These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. ¹⁸ Let no one disqualify you, insisting on asceticism and worship of angels, going on in detail about visions,^[d] puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind, ¹⁹ and not holding fast to the Head, from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God.

²⁰ If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations— ²¹ “Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch” ²² ( referring to things that all perish as they are used)—according to human precepts and teachings? ²³ These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.

The class went on for awhile and I was wondering if we would ever get to the meat of the text. With ten minutes left we got to the above verses and a brawl broke out between the Paulists and the Judaizers. The teacher moderated the discussion with aplomb and even CP added to the discourse (woman don't usually speak in our Sunday School).

I had the good fortune of sitting next to a Jew. Me being a Catholic I could relate when he said he was glad to leave all the rules and traditions behind. Maybe those who come out of the world of dietary laws, feasts, and traditions can relate to this verse better. Perhaps, those who don't have this background feel they're missing something.

After class I talked to the Jew next to me and told him how in my family three Polish women married three Italian men and how after a few years they were more Italian than the true Italians. That's what's so great about Christianity, we have the same arguments going on for thousands of years. I sure didn't need any caffeine drip to keep me awake this morning. For a change I had both the right to remain silent and the ability.